Benefits of Vertical Farming in modern era

Source: agrotechnomarket.com

When we say the benefits of something. we will know that it is an innovation. Yah, in the modern era, we can modify new farming technique like an alternative way of growing crops, vertical farming. The vertical farming would utilize agricultural methods such as greenhousing, aeroponics and hydroponics and would store everything in an agricultural structure like that of a high rise building which will be called a farmscraper.

The whole idea may sound pretty complex, and even preposterous and absurd to some, but come to think of it, the whole idea of innovation offers a lot of advantages of vertical farming that we could really benefit from. Increase in crop production is one advantage of vertical farming principle, especially in urban city.

Unlike traditional farming wherein you can only grow and harvest a limited amount of crops in a piece of land, vertical farming multiplies the land productivity even more since, well, it's a multi tier farming. The farmscrapers are also designed to have a market in the same infrastructure where the crops are grown, so that would definitely eliminate travel costs and spoilage, hence decreasing the price of the crops. And since the crops are enclosed in a controlled environment, they can be well protected from weather related problems such as intense heat, intense cold, wildfires, etc. It could also help conserve lands that are used up by traditional farms. This agricultural idea may be at its early stages at present but I'm sure ten, twenty, thirty years from now, it'll be on its full swing and consumers could reap all the benefits from it.

Vertical farming offers a lot of advantages that we could all benefit from. The following is the benefits of vertical farming for environment agriculture.

• Vertical farming firms are able to produce crops year-round;
• Reduce the use of fossil fuels since machines to transport crops are not required, and water is recycled from vertical layer to vertical layer, leaving neither soil nor water unused;
• Vertical farms to grow quality foods because extreme weather has no direct effect on the lifecycle of their crops growth, and neither do insects or pesticides.
• Vertical farming has also begun trending in the DIY world, allowing households to grow their own fruits and vegetables while also recycling water and soil

4 Types of Farm Irrigation Systems

4 Types of Farm Irrigation Systems - There are many different types of farm irrigation systems. Today, new technologies improve the ability of water managing, labor and energy more efficiently while giving crops necessary moisture for profitable yields.  And they are in the four main types of irrigation systems, namely flood, sprinkler, drip, and micro irrigation.

1. Flood Irrigation

Companies that supply farm irrigation systems have equipment to distribute water for flood irrigation in these ways:

•  Furrow Irrigation – Irrigation water is directed down furrows that runs on around crops. Water to the furrows is supplied by above-ground PVC pipe with an opening called a “gate” at each furrow. The opening of the gate can be varied to adjust the flow to the furrow. Furrow irrigation can be used especially for vegetable garden. In some cases, a large diameter thin wall poly pipe is used and a hole is punched to divert water to each furrow. For more information about the advantages of furrow irrigation, please click here.
•  Graded Border Irrigation – Irrigated water is directed down a narrow strip of a field with raised earth borders on each side. The length of the border is graded to a specific gradual slope for the most uniform application. Water is usually supplied to the high end of the border from an underground pipeline with a riser and valve.

2. Sprinkler Irrigation

Sprinkler irrigation can be used to irrigate fields of most any size, slope, or shape. Sprinkler is better using in greenhouse farming. Listed below are the different ways sprinklers are used in farm irrigation systemsto distribute water over a field.

• Hand Move Pipe – Sprinklers are attached to the end of a thirty or forty foot section of aluminum or PVC pipe. These pipes are installed end to end down a row or section of field and are called a lateral. Laterals are usually spaced about forty feet apart.
• Solid Set – Permanent underground PVC pipe is installed throughout a field with risers coming off of them with a sprinkler installed on top. Spacings between the sprinklers can be from forty to over one hundred feet depending on the size and type of sprinkler used.
• Center Pivots or Other Mechanical Move Irrigation Systems – Sprinklers for this irrigation method are installed along the machine suspended from rigid or hose drops. They are usually installed just above the top of the crop but can be put close to the ground for some farm irrigation systems.
• Hose Reel or Traveling Gun Systems – One large sprinkler is installed on a cart attached to hose on a larger reel. The cart is connected to a tractor and is pulled down the field for setup, unreeling the hose from the reel. When water runs through the system, the sprinkler operates and the reel turns, winding up the hose and pulling the sprinkler and cart in.

3. Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation involves the use of small diameter poly tubing with emitters and is used to apply water to a small area directly to the root zone of a crop. The emitters can be installed into the tubing by hand to water a specific tree or plant. Also used is emitter tubing which has drip emitters installed at the factory on a specific spacing to reduce installation costs. Drip systems can be installed above ground or can be buried to reduce damage to the tubing. Drip tape is a type of drip irrigation which has drip emitters installed in a very thin tube which is shipped flat in coils or rolls. The emitters are spaced from 6 to 12 inches apart. Drip tape is usually used to irrigate vegetable crops and gardens but can be buried to irrigate crops such as cotton or corn.

4. Micro Irrigation

Micro irrigation involves the use of small, low volume sprinklers called micro-sprinklers on farm irrigation systems that irrigate orchards and vineyards. In most cases, the micro-sprinkler is installed at the base of a tree to water only that tree. In some cases, the micro-sprinkler is installed between two trees. Water can be provided to the micro-sprinklers from above ground polyethylene or poly pipe, or by PVC pipe buried below ground.

Choosing on which irrigation system installation is best for farm or field irrigation requires a farmer to consider many different things: patterns of land, water source, budget, crops being grown, watering requirements, setup and convenience, and numerous other factors. If it is needed, you can call the irrigation system company that will help you.

Benefits of The Internet of Sea for Future Commercial Fishing

Benefits of The Internet of Sea for Future Commercial Fishing - To ensure a sustainable future for fish marketing and the livelihoods of fishing communities, we have to change the way we catch fish. And we have to replace trawling method, an industrial deep sea fishing method where a large, heavy fishing net is pulled behind a boat along the seabed, which is the most destructive of fishing techniques.

Today, we know the benefits of using the internet of sea in development of underwater image recognition that able to better navigate the seas. Combine these technologies with improved ability to collect, analyze and curate vast amounts of data, and many of the tools needed to spur this disruption already exists.

To help this development, three leading seafood-processing brands – Espersen, Icelandic Seachill and Nomad Foods – have launched a design challenge aimed at reimagining fishing. They are inviting industry actors and fishermen, scientists and technology developers to come together to prototype transformational design concepts for new gear to address the following four objectives:
 

• Harvest high quality and affordable seafood from sustainable fish stocks, today and in the future.
• Reduce or eliminate the negative environmental impact of trawler fishing, including fuel and GHG emissions and reduce he amount of time boats have their gear in the water searching for fish.
• Help the fisherman to better identify locations, species and movements of fish before fishermen even put their gear in the water so they can select particular species.
• Generate real and tangible benefits to the fishermen.

Using azolla as livestock feed

Source image: Agrotechnomarket.com

Azolla is a type of fern mostly utilized as livestock feed besides as bio-fertilizer for wetland paddy. Azolla was found to be a very nutritive and Azolla can be used as cheap organic feed substitute for dairy cattle, poultry, pig, fish etc. Azolla belongs to the family of azollaceace.

To make livestock feed, Azolla should be harvested with a plastic tray having holes of 1sq cm mesh size. And then, Azolla should be washed to get rid of the cow dung smell. Washing also helps in separating the small plantlets which drain out of the tray. The plantlets along with water in the bucket can be poured back into the original bed.

When introducing azolla as livestock feed, the fresh azolla should be mixed with commercial feed in 1:1 ratio to feed livestock. After a fortnight of feeding on azolla mixed with concentrate, livestock may be fed with azolla without added concentrate.

Why Azolla can be used as livestock feed?

Azolla is rich in protein, essential minerals like Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Copper, Manganese etc apart from appreciable quantities of vitamins A and vitamins B12.

It is also found to contain almost all the essential Amino acids, many probiotics, Biopolymers and B carotene.

The above mention bio-chemical constitution along with the rapid multiplication rate makes Azolla ideal organic feed substitutes for livestock.

The Effects of Chemical Fertilizer for Food Security

A chemical fertilizer (also called inorganic, synthetic, artificial, or manufactured) is a substance in specific ratios with other chemical fillers applied to soils or directly onto plants to provide nutrients optimal for their growth and development. The effects of using chemical fertilizer cause environmental damage  – and even a presumed adverse impact on food security. In addition to, Chemical fertilizers, in effect, “kill” the soil while the benefits of organic fertilizers improve and sustain the soil. The following gives details of the affect chemical fertilizers have on our soil.

Soil Friability:
Chemical fertilizers destroy the friability of soil.

1. Chemical fertilizers contain acids, including sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. These acids dissolve “soil crumbs”, the material that holds rock particles together.
2. When these cementing materials are destroyed, the result is a compacted surface that prevents rain water from entering the soil.

Plant Diseases:
Chemical fertilizers encourage plant disease.

1. Fast-release chemical fertilizers have a high nitrogen content compared to slow-release organic fertilizers. When there is an overabundance of nitrogen (N) in relation to phosphate (P), plants are more susceptible to mosaic infections.
2. High nitrogen, as well as a lack of trace elements, is also related to fungal and bacterial disease in plants and vegetables.

Disadvantages of Chemical Fertilizer:

1. Chemical fertilizers are primarily made from nonrenewable sources, including fossil fuels.
2. They grow plants but do nothing to sustain the soil. The fillers do not promote life or soil health, and even packages labeled “complete” do not include the decaying matter necessary to improve soil structure. In fact, chemical fertilizers don’t replace many trace elements that are gradually depleted by repeated crop plantings, resulting in long-term damage to the soil.
3. Because the nutrients are readily available, there is a danger of over fertilization. This not only can kill plants but upset the entire ecosystem.
4. Chemical fertilizers tend to leach, or filter away from the plants, requiring additional applications.
5. Repeated applications may result in a toxic buildup of chemicals such as arsenic, cadmium, and uranium in the soil. These toxic chemicals can eventually make their way into your fruits and vegetables.
6. Long-term use of chemical fertilizer can change the soil pH, upset beneficial microbial ecosystems, increase pests, and even contribute to the release of greenhouse gases.

Flood or Furrow Irrigation

Early farmer would have used this "low-tech" an ancient method of irrigating crops -- collect water in a bucket and pour it onto the fields. Today, this is still one of the most popular methods of crop irrigation used by humans as they began cultivating crops. The system is called flood irrigation -- water is pumped or brought to the fields and is allowed to flow along the ground among the crops. This method is simple and cheap, and is widely used by societies in less developed parts of the world as well as in the U.S.

Advantages of furrow irrigation include lower initial investment of equipment and lower pumping costs per acre-inch of water pumped. In addition to, furrow irrigation practice can minimize irrigation costs and chemical leaching and result in higher crop yields.Disadvantages include greater labor costs and lower application efficiency compared to sprinkler and subsurface drip irrigation system.


Here are some things that farmers are doing to be more efficient:

1. Leveling of fields, Flood irrigation uses gravity to transport water, and, since water flows downhill, it will miss a part of the field that is on a hill, even a small hill. Farmers are using leveling equipment, some of which is guided by a laser beam, to scrape a field flat before planting. That allows water to flow evenly throughout the fields. (Actually, this method of levelling a field is also used to build flat tennis courts).
2. Surge flooding, Traditional flooding involved just releasing water onto a field. In using surge flooding, water is released at prearranged intervals, which reduces unwanted runoff.
3. Capture and reuse of runoff, A large amount of flood-irrigation water is wasted because it runs off the edges and back of the fields. Farmers can capture the runoff in low-lying areas and pumped to the top of the field where it can be reused..

Fendt adds mowers, rakes, combines and balers to range

Fendt has moved a step closer to a complete farm machinery offering after adding grass-harvesting kit and combines to its existing line-up of tractors and foragers.

Most of the gear has been sourced from other Agco-owned brands and dressed in Fendt’s trademark green livery, but the company hopes a few subtle differences and a good local dealer will tempt plenty of punters.

Hay and forage equipment
The firm’s Fella-based four-drum Cutter mowers come in both front and rear set-ups and use a quick-release blade system.

Two 3m front-mounted versions are available – one of which uses a trailing linkage to follow ground contours with working widths between 2.86-3.26m. The other is simply attached to the front linkage and gives up to five degrees of lateral movement.

Those who are after a rear-carried machine can chose between a side-mounted drum set-up with sprung suspension, or a centre-mounted option with its TurboLift system to change ground pressure on the move. These are available in widths between 2.55m and 3.06m.

If you prefer a disc mower, the Slicer uses a flat cutter bar with spring suspension as standard. Front and back combination set-ups can extend working widths to 9.3m.

The Former rakes offer width options from 3.4m to 12.5m, using one, two or four rotors, while Twister tedders extend from 6.6m to 12.7m.

Combines
The company is launching a five-model range of combines that top out with the hybrid Fendt X-series that offers a cutting width of up to 10.7m.

Power comes from a seven-cylinder, 496hp Agco Power engine and automatic header table leveling can be specced for working on slopes of up to 12%.

Tracks can be specified by users looking to minimise compaction and the standard grain tank has a 12,500-litre capacity.

The P-series comes with a choice of 379hp or 404hp engine and eight straw walkers. Headers extend to 9m and the high-capacity straw chopper carries 108 knives.

C-series machines get a six-pot, 360hp block and a cutting width up to 7.7m. A six-row straw chopper, with 88 serrated knives, and a 9,000-litre capacity grain tank are both standard fare, while Fendt ParaLevel with 20% sloping capacity is an option.

The L-series is a five-walker machine that keeps things a bit simpler. The six-cylinder Agco engine delivers a maximum 306hp, while the 8,600-litre grain tank unloads at a rate of 105 litres/sec at a height of 4.2m.

At the smaller end of things is the Fendt E-series. Two models – the 5185 and the 5225 – provide a choice between a four-cylinder, 176hp engine with 5,200-litre grain tank, and a 218hp six-cylinder model with a 6,500-litre tank. Both can be fitted with a 5.5m PowerFlow table.

Balers
Big square balers come with a 2.26m pick-up and a double-knotter system that includes an integral impeller fan to provide a constant airstream to keep things clean.

Source: http://www.fwi.co.uk/

Indoor farming— 10 things you need to know

Indoor farming is an incredibly complex industry, surrounded by many unknowns and misconceptions. We know how challenging that can be. So, we set out to provide detailed insight about the state of the industry today — what growers are doing, their challenges, and how they see their field changing over the next few years. Indoor farming or vertical farming has many advantages, so you need to know the following 10 things of indoor farming.

If you don’t have time to dig deep, don’t worry. Here are the 10 things you need to know:
1. Indoor farmers are confident about their future profitability.
For the most part, farmers believe the crops they grow are the most profitable, and they plan to stick with them. Greens and herbs/microgreens top the list of crops growers believe are most profitable to grow. We found that while many growers agree cannabis is hugely profitable, most do not plan to grow it in the near future.

2. Cannabis is the highest revenue generating crop.
Cannabis farmers are generating $112 per square foot in revenue. That’s $4.8 million per acre. Greens were ranked next, generating $64 per square foot or $2.8 million per acre.

3. Farming indoors is far more productive than outdoor fields.
Indoor horticulture (greens, microgreens, herbs, and vine crops) is 170 times more productive than outdoor fields. Growing indoor cannabis is 9,000x more productive than growing outdoor commodity crops, like corn and wheat.

4. Indoor means faster growth times and more harvest cycles.
Indoor farmers have the unique ability to create ideal climactic environments. This means growing seasons can be extended and seed-to-harvest time can be decreased. Indoor lettuce growers, for example, will have four times as many crop turns as outdoor growers in a given year.

5. Indoor yields more.
Indoor growers yield 10–15 times more than outdoor farms. We found that 63% of the yield increase is due to an increase in productivity from growing indoors, while 37% of the yield increase is due to extra crop turns from growing indoors.

6. The organic factor is complex.
Half the farmers we surveyed reported growing organically, though only 8% said they were certified as USDA Organic. Of those not certified, 47% indicated interest in obtaining the certification.


7. Growers are actively investing in technology.
Growing in a climate controlled environment enables growers to realize massive efficiency gains by implementing small changes. As a result, indoor growers have large budgets and are investing in technologies to improve operations, yield, and crop quality.


8. Data matters.
Indoor growers recognize the benefits of accurate actionable insights. In fact, 90% of growers believe data analytics will increase crop yields.


9. The market is growing fast.
Growers have big plans, with 86% of growers planning to expand their operations in the next five years.


10. This growth will expand the market by billions.
Indoor vegetable growers project adding between 8.5 and 16.5 million square feet of new growing area in the next five years — the minimum planned expansion is 4.7x larger than current farm size. We estimate this growth contributing between $3.7 and $6.8 billion to the market.






Source: agrylist

IS A DRIP IRRIGATION THE BEST WAY FOR YOUR LANDSCAPE?

Source: Agrotechnomarket.com

Drip irrigation systems are a water-efficient, cost-effective method of delivering water directly to your plants' roots. Drip irrigation systems can be great for many landscapes, but like anything else, they have advantages and disadvantages, and whether or not they're right for your landscape beds depends on the specific characteristics of your landscape. But you’ll be better served by a conventional irrigation system for large spaces that need watering, such as turf areas.

Regardless of what type of irrigation system installed, the equipment requires regular maintenance, and plants and turf must be carefully monitored to ensure that they are getting water they need to thrive.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Drip Irrigation

Advantages of Drip Irrigation:

1. Maximum use of available water.
2. No water being available to weeds.
3. Maximum crop yield.
4. High efficiency in the use of  fertilizers.
5. Less weed growth and restricts population of potential hosts.
6. Low labour and relatively low operation cost.
7. No soil erosion.
8. Improved infiltration in soil of low intake.
9. Ready adjustment to sophisticated automatic control.
10. No runoff of fertilizers into ground water.
11. Less evaporation losses of water as compared to surface irrigation.
12. Improves seed germination.
13. Decreased to tillage operations.

Disadvantages of Drip Irrigation:

In spite of the fact that drip irrigation has so many potential advantages, they have disadvantages also, there are as follow:

1. Sensitivity to clogging
2. Moisture distribution problem
3. Salinity hazards
4. High cost compared to furrow.
5. High skill is required for design, install and operation.

5 Inspiring Ways Synthetic Biology Will Revolutionize Food and Agriculture

Synthetic biology is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of science — and a perfect example of next-generation innovation. Combining disciplines like biology, design, engineering and software development, synbio allows us to shape natural systems and even create entirely new ones from scratch.

Researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs are already using synbio in some inspiring ways. In the past few years, they’ve created an artificial photosynthesis process, an engineered bacteria to invade cancer cells, and are even turning agriculture waste into eco-friendly chemicals — and these examples barely scratch the surface. The global synthetic biology market is quickly growing, and is projected to grow to $16 billion by 2018.

Any new or disruptive technology that threatens the status quo can cause confusion and even spark controversy, but in the case of synbio, I’m excited about its potential to help solve some of the biggest problems we face in the food and agriculture industry.

In my work and research at Syngenta and the Thought For Food Foundation, I’ve seen firsthand how innovators are approaching synthetic biology with an entrepreneurial mindset — combining disciplines, uprooting entrenched assumptions, and encouraging openness and collaboration — to create a positive global impact, particularly in the realm of food security.

Here are five of the most exciting ways synthetic biology is transforming the food and ag industry, and paving the way for a future in which we can eradicate hunger and malnourishment, while also protecting and enhancing our environment.

1. We can design plants from the ground up.

Imagine glowing trees in place of street lamps. Mushrooms that grow into furniture. Crops that require less pesticides and resist drought. These are just some of the ways we can develop a more sustainable and exciting future using synbio in plants.

We are entering a biological era. If the past decades were defined by the industrial and digital revolutions, the future is all about making biology work for and with us.

Synthetic biology enables us to apply design and engineering principles to plant science. We can pinpoint what we want plants to do, and then create that process by precisely engineering biological systems.

Biology is following the general footsteps of the computer industry — except in this case, DNA is our programming language. With genome sequencing, we can read DNA, which provides us with lots of important information. Once we read this information, we have to understand what the code is saying. Machine learning and data analysis are helping us in this regard, but writing the code is where it gets most interesting. After all, writing is where we can be creative!

In the early days, recombining DNA was slow and difficult. But technology is getting faster, better and cheaper every day. You don’t even need a lab — it’s all gone digital. Software tools combined with CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology allow us to do things that were simply impossible to imagine just 15 years ago.
2. We can find ethical, sustainable and efficient solutions to our food needs.

With synthetic biology, we can rethink everything we know about how food is produced. We can produce cow’s milk without needing the actual cow, or eggs that haven’t been laid by chickens. One company called Real Vegan Cheese is made up of a team of biohackers who are creating a substance that has the same molecular identity as cow’s milk. This milk is then used to make vegan cheese — a cheese made from what is essentially real cow’s milk, only with zero animal involvement.

Then there’s the New Harvest initiative. Led by Isha Datar, a power woman I had the chance to share the stage with recently at the Hello Tomorrow Summit in Paris, this organization funds open, public, collaborative research to revolutionize the production of animal products without the actual animals. Some of their projects include Perfect Day Foods, a company making dairy products without cows; Clara Foods, who are using cell culture to make egg whites; and an avian tissue research project with the goal of producing turkey and chicken meat without animals.

Cellular agriculture has endless possibilities, including the ability to make more nutrient-packed foods with a longer shelf life, as well as foods tailored for specific uses and preferences, such as meat with lower saturated fat, lactose-free milk, cholesterol-free eggs, or egg whites specifically intended for different baked goods like meringues or fluffy angel food cakes.
 
3. We can make food safer and more nutritious.

Synthetic biology helps us optimize the unseen. We can improve taste and nutritional properties, and create new foods like algae butter and hypoallergenic peanuts. We can help plants grow with less water or land, and design hypersensitive systems at the production level to keep the food we eat safer.

One company, Sample6, is working toward finding and eliminating potentially life-threatening bacterium in food before it hits shelves. Its integrated systems quickly and easily detect harmful or unwanted bacteria in products for a wide variety of industries, including food and healthcare. They’ve developed a test kit that can detect Listeria, for example, while food is still in the processing plant. Such kits provide results in just three to four hours, while the traditional process can take up to 48 hours.

An exciting company working to make food more nutrient-rich is Peer-to-Peer Probiotics, former TFF Challenge finalists. They are engineering microbes to improve vitamin content in fermented foods like yogurt, cheese and cereal-based foods. Since these are traditional foods all over the world, creating a version with healthier microbial contents will ensure more people in different regions have access to vital nutrients. The company is building an open-source, peer-to-peer sharing model to distribute their probiotics in developing nations.
 
4. Everyone — including you — has the tools to work with this technology.

For me, the most inspiring aspect of synbio is that individuals and fresh startups, not big multinationals, are the vanguards of this field. A DIY movement has gained momentum, with the goal of enabling more people to use the technology through openness and sharing. (For example, check out the DIY Bio code of conduct, which includes a pledge to education, transparency and responsibility.) DIY bio labs are popping up all over the world, like BioCurious and Genspace.

Some companies are even offering consumer-level products and kits containing materials so anyone can experiment and play with biology without needing access to a lab. Amino Labs, for example, has a simulator that lets you become a virtual bioengineer and sends a kit that allows you to set up your own lab. Similarly, The Odin offers a DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Kit that teaches molecular biology and gene engineering techniques with enough material to conduct five at-home experiments. Then there’s Bento Labs, which offers a mobile DNA lab that allows you to extract, copy and visualize DNA — anywhere you want.

The democratization of synbio enables innovators to “play with their food” in ways that simply wasn’t imaginable before — even updating and improving how we prepare food at home for consumption. Molecular gastronomy and science-based cooking techniques like immersion baths are just the beginning. My friend John Cumbers, who founded SynBioBeta, the activity hub for the synthetic biology industry, is especially excited about the impact of fermentation on the future of food. “From kombucha, to beer and cheese, the ability for microbes to cook our food and make flavors and textures from biological pathways inside yeast and bacteria is really exciting,” he told me.

In the future, anyone, anywhere can have ideas for plants and make them in the same way kids make mobile apps today.
5. This is just the beginning. A wave of innovation is upon us.

Competitions are also fostering communities of young innovators interested in working and collaborating in the field of synthetic biology.

Of course, there’s our TFF Challenge (learn more and sign up today here), where we are actively seeking synbio projects. Another competition specifically focused on engaging new minds and building new ideas in this field is the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, which encourages students to work and build within biological systems. Our TFF team is excited to take part in the iGEM jamboree this year, taking place in Boston from October 27–31, 2016.

Note: If you are a synbio researcher or enthusiast looking to get your innovation out of the lab and into the real world, come talk to us — we can help! Last year’s iGEM team, Peer-to-Peer Probiotics, joined our Challenge, won a cash prize, and went on to participate in the accelerator Indie Bio to gain further insight and experience in developing their startup venture.
Conclusion

Synthetic biology is an exciting emerging field with the potential to solve some of the most pressing problems on the planet. That said, any paradigm shift comes with its own set of challenges. We’ll need to address major issues related to the public perception, ethics and government regulation, as a start.

There’s lots of room for passionate young innovators to get involved in shaping the future of this technology. In the future we are working toward, every man, woman and child has adequate access to safe, nutritious food. We’re able to feed a planet of 9+ billion people without compromising our natural resources. And every day that passes, we discover new, surprising ways to improve our food systems.

*By: Christine Gould (Founder & CEO of the Thought For Food Foundation)

Drones & Technology Convergence

An expert might be reasonably good at predicting the growth of a single exponential technology (e.g. 3D Printing), but try to predict the future when A.I., Robotics, VR, Drones, and Computation are all doubling, morphing and recombining… You have a very exciting (read: unpredictable) future. ​ This year, at my Abundance 360 Summit, I decided to explore this concept in sessions I called “Convergence Catalyzers.”

For each technology, I brought in an industry expert to identify their Top 5 Recent Breakthroughs (2012–2015) and their Top 5 Anticipated Breakthroughs (2016–2018). Then, we explored the patterns that emerged.

Virtual Reality — Context

At A360 this year, my expert on drones was Chris Anderson.

Chris is the founder and CEO of 3D Robotics, where he has built one of the most successful UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) businesses and an incredibly large community of drone enthusiasts called DIY Drones. Chris was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of WIRED Magazine. To put it lightly, he is brilliant and if you want to know anything about drones, Chris is the guy to talk to.

Before we dive in, here’s some more context.

A drone is an aerial robot that can be controlled remotely or autonomously.

Over the past few years, a technological tipping point, driven by the smartphone electronics industry, has demonetized the price of drones and democratized their use for everyone.

The cost of MEMs, accelerometers and gyroscopes have dropped 10 to 100-fold at the same time that cheap and powerful microcontrollers enable low-cost and powerful navigational control systems.

As a result, we now have drones that everyone can use, and companies like DJI and 3D Robotics are enabling both a consumer and entrepreneurial drone renaissance.

With the addition of next-generation sensors and high bandwidth communications, drones are now effective data gathering platforms used by the Construction, Agriculture, Oil & Gas and Security industries.

At the same time, both Amazon and Google have announced much-anticipated drone package delivery services.

Soon, further advances in exponential technologies, batteries and material sciences will create another tipping point in drone technology, making them smart, cheap, reliable, scalable (both small and large), and ultimately ubiquitous.

Top 5 Recent Drone Breakthroughs: 2013–2015

Here are the breakthroughs Chris identified in Drones from 2012–2015.

1. Drones go into mainstream business in Construction, Oil/Gas and Agriculture.

Over the past few years, drones have moved from the “government phase” to the “consumer phase” into the “commercial phase.”

In the consumer phase, the drone was more toy than tool. The video capabilities and simple flight interfaces made them fun and accessible. But more recently, these toys have been rapidly turning into tools, and we’re thinking of them now as “sensors in the sky.”

“It’s almost like we forget about the drone. Now, we are just connecting a sensor to the cloud and that sensor’s in the air. It’s below the satellites and above street view.”

These sensor platforms (“drones”) are now being used in agriculture, real estate, precision, oil and gas, construction, and many other domains.

2. Cloud-connected consumer drones run distributed computation, running apps on drone, phone and cloud simultaneously.

“With today’s drones you get connectivity, you get the cloud, and if you architect your system correctly, the drone is just an extension of the Internet.”

When you distribute the computational task between these three things (the drone, the cloud, and the Internet), you get a very powerful platform that can do an extraordinary number of things, intelligently and at scale — think of it as extending the App Store into the physical world and the sky.

3. Powerful onboard Linux processors appear on sub-$1,000 drones.

“Drones are very powerful computing platforms,” says Anderson. “They now have built-in, Linux-based, computer vision technology. They look like toys (and you can use them as toys), but they’re really flying AI platforms, and this is just the beginning.”

“Right now we’re doing 1 gigahertz but with these converging technologies, we’re going to be moving to multicore, multi-gigahertz GPUs, DSPs, the works and they’re going to be selling for less than a thousand bucks.”

4. Industry consortiums (e.g. Dronecode) emerge to build open software stack, drone policy leadership not driven by military.

Over the past few years, nonmilitary consortiums have emerged to push drone technology and collaboration forward. This particular movement is unique and impressive not only because so many people are collaborating/sharing, but also because it is so interdisciplinary.

Anderson expands, “We have the computer side; we have the computer vision side; we have the AI side; we have the cloud side; we have the applications side. No one company or industry knows all the potential applications.”

5. Prices for autonomous GPS-guided drones fall 50% (US $500), go mass-market retail.

Drones are demonetizing rapidly. Ten years ago, drones were million-dollar military/industrial things. Today they are on the shelves of Walmart. But it didn’t stop there…

Anderson explains further, “They started at $1,500 and now they’re at $500 and they’re soon going to $50, with even better technology onboard. The price decline in the industry is staggering.”

So what’s in store for the near future?.

Top 6 Anticipated Drone Breakthroughs 2016–2018

Here are Anderson’s predictions for the most exciting, disruptive developments coming in drone technology over the next three years. As entrepreneurs and investors, these are the areas you should be focusing on, as the business opportunities are tremendous.

1. Drones are increasingly based on cutting-edge smartphone technology (Qualcomm Snapdragon platform).

The drone industry is leveraging billions of dollars of investment going into this kind of revolution in our pockets. We are using commodity hardware and open-source software to outperform military systems faster and cheaper.

“This is just the beginning,” says Anderson. “You will basically see supercomputer performance in toy level devices, just as we’re already seeing with smartphones.”

2. Computer vision, sense-and-avoid and optical tracking become standard in consumer drones.

The next big breakthrough in drone research will be “sense-and-avoid.”

Right now, drones are either manually piloted or GPS piloted, but as we integrate them into our urban fabric, they’ll need true autonomy.

Anderson expands, “Drones will need to have eyes. Sensors like radar, LiDAR, stereo vision, sonar, and they’ll need to use this to autonomously avoid obstacles and fly. It’s environmental awareness and it is necessary to safely navigate worlds they’ve never explored.”

“Eventually, the data from autonomous drones will convince the regulators that they’re safer than having a pilot.”

3. Major software companies integrate drone data into core offerings, taking “reality capture” mainstream.

“It’s really hard to digitize the physical world,” says Anderson. “Satellites are too high, and two-thirds of the planet’s covered by clouds at any given point in time. Street View is limited to the street. The way we’re going to digitize the planet is by putting sensors out there on drones, with anywhere/anytime access to the sky.”

Once we do that, we’ll create the biggest big data opportunity we’ve ever seen. Autodesk, Salesforce, SAP, Google, etc. want to take that data and turn it into analytics to track all kinds of things, like how things change.

4. Drones surpass satellites in amount of data gathered and used.

A transition is happening — Earth observation started in the space age with satellites.

Anderson continues, “I believe we’re going to see drones become the main way that we digitize the planet from the air. Satellites are going to be complimentary, covering big areas but at lower resolution.”

5. Drones become like Wi-Fi.

“Today the FCC doesn’t have to regulate or give you a license for Wi-Fi because it’s low power and self-de-conflicting — it’s not a threat to anyone,” says Anderson.

“In the future, as drones become small enough, with low kinetic energy, and smart enough, I believe the FAA will regulate them like Wi-Fi. We want the FAA to create kind of an ‘open spectrum’ sandbox to allow for a huge amounts of innovation.”

*By Peter Diamandis

3 Benefits of drone use in agriculture

Source: Agrotechnomarket.com

Drone technology has been around for decades, and an agriculture industry takes a part of technology innovation. Drone in agriculture has benefits to monitor fields in eastern Oregon from the air, looking for moisture and nutrient deficiencies in crops which allows farmers to apply treatment before the crops are impacted significantly.

Agriculture is on tap to make up 80 percent of the market for unmanned aircrafts in the next couple of decades. With the invention of newer, more effective technologies, drones have the potential to improve the agriculture industry into a future of sustainability.

Although drone technology is still modifying production to enhance easy to use and lower prices, these machines already have the potential to go a long way towards improving farmers’ bottom lines – and the environment. The following are three key benefits of drone use in agriculture:

1. More information, less time

One of the major benefits of drones is their ability to scout farm fields both quickly and efficiently. Rather than having growers evaluate fields manually on foot or by tractor, this technology allows farmers to gain immediate knowledge about the status of their fields in shorter periods of time.

This information can be gathered whenever and wherever it is needed, minimizing the response time required to address issues and maintain crops.

2. Improving crop health

New drone technology is very effective at collecting data to help farmers improve crop health.With the help of GPS, Drones can map an entire farm, find pests or dry soil, and relay exact coordinates for attention. Equipped with sensors, drones flying over a field can collect plant height measurements by gathering range information from the plant canopy and the ground below. By measuring near infrared wavelengths through a multispectral images, drones can also create vegetation index images, can be combined to create a view of the crop that highlights differences between healthy and absorbing maximum sunlight and also can make difference for distressed plants in a way that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

Drones also create satellite maps that can help farmers make decisions about fertilizer – a major concern of farmers, as fertilizer represents up to 50 percent of input costs. By using high-tech sensors to absorb near infrared wavelengths, drones make maps that can show where phosphorous and nitrogen might be needed – or where there is an excess of nutrients. In this way, more nutrients are being applied where they are needed most, as more fertilizer is absorbed by plants when it is applied precisely. This level of detail can help farmers increase production and efficiencies that lead to higher yields.

3. Water efficiency

Thermal cameras are able to detect cooler, well-watered field regions as well as dry hot patches. Farmers can reveal patterns that expose everything from irrigation problems and avoid wasting excess water.

And by increasing water and fertilizer efficiency, drone technology also helps to see fungal infestations that aren’t apparent at eye level.

Most drones currently available for use in the agriculture industry are very costly. However, with new developments and further innovation, drones may start to prove their value in agriculture.

See also: The 8 Best Drones in Agricultural Sector on the Market Today

Finally, a drone in agriculture can survey a crop every week, every day, or even every hour. Combined to create a time-series animation, that imagery can show changes in the crop, revealing trouble spots or opportunities for better crop management.